I love mums. Their flower-to-foliage ratio is awesome, and they are available in a myriad of gorgeous colors. For some reason I don’t appreciate these facts until fall. In spring I’m hopelessly myopic. Who wants to plant something that won’t bloom for 4 months? Then when fall rolls around and nothing else is blooming I remember…I do!
Years ago it was hard to find mums that would survive winter in my Zone 5 garden, but now I rely on cultivars introduced by the University of Montana and the University of Minnesota. Not only do they shrug off our beastly winters, but the plants stay in a nice clump instead of dying out in the middle or crawling all over the garden.
This is Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Grandchild’:
The two-tone pink flowers grow on sturdy, 18-inch plants. The flowers take on a bluish tinge when the sun isn’t shining on them.
Another cultivar that has performed beautifully in my garden for years is ‘MinnRuby’. The dark-red flowers grow 14 inches tall:
And I’m always happy to see the cheery bright-yellow blooms of ‘Chico’ (15 inches):
